Intrepid offers freebies to most important film of the year

Ten years ago, Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, shook and confronted the world, sky rocketing climate change into the heart of popular culture. And now there’s a sequel.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that we’re gonna get on rocketships and live on Mars: this is our home,” the ex US Vice President exclaims in the trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.

The original documentary shocked the world and brought climate change into a new light – and the sequel is set to attempt the same level of impact.

And Intrepid – being a pioneer in sustainable travel – wasn’t about to miss this opportunity.

Just as co-founder Darrell Wade realised 10 years ago when the first movie came out, there’s still a long way to go in terms of how much the tourism industry impacts the environment.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power follows Al Gore in the lead up to the Paris Agreement – a global United Nations agreement to fight climate change and global warming. During the documentary, Al Gore influences international climate change policy – through his belief that it can be overcome with passion and innovation.

“As a travel company we see the environmental impacts first hand, at home on the Great Barrier Reef and in places like Antarctica,” Wade said.

“We want to preserve these amazing places for future generations and that’s why we think it’s so important that Aussies see this documentary.”

According to the Australian Bueruo of Statistics, eight million Aussies head overseas each year – and that’s no surprise: the Aussie passport is among the world’s most powerful, opening the door to hundreds of countries.

“We are the lucky country. A nation of travellers, yet it appears many Australians have their ‘heads in the sand’ when it comes to climate change,” Wade added.

So, when the first documentary was released 10 years ago, Intrepid made a change, and Wade was one of the first Aussies to undergo Al Gore’s Climate Project training – committing Intrepid Travel to a Carbon Management Plan and eventually becoming a carbon-neutral business in 2010.

But that wasn’t all. Intrepid also launched a refund system to encourage those skeptical Aussies to go and see An Inconvenient Truth – resulting in 1500 cheques being posted around Australia by Intrepid staff when the offer went viral.

Last week, the company announced a new refund system for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: in which Aussies just have to post their movie ticket stubs to the Intrepid Travel offices in Melbourne to receive a full refund.

Not just the travel industry, but everyone.

“Our finance team are going to hate me for doing this. Sea level and cinema ticket prices have both risen over the past ten years.

“We’re expecting to do hundreds of individual movie ticket refunds, so this is going to cost us big time – but if it inspires just a few people to ask inconvenient questions then it’s all worth it,” Wade said.

Speaking at the trade premiere in Sydney last night, attended by yours truly, Intrepid’s Responsible Business Manager, Liz Manning, said it’s well and truly time that the industry started taking responsibility for the environment.

“It’s time, as travellers, that we start asking if there’s a little more we could be doing to protect the planet,” she told the audience prior to the movie screening.

“If we don’t take action, we run the risk of losing our most iconic species,” she added, citing the serious impact of tourism especially on coastal communities.

“A lot of people find it unsettling, a lot of people choose to ignore or deny it, but this is an opportunity for people to create real change.

“As Al Gore says, ‘We need to fight because our world really does depend on it’, and that’s why Intrepid is refunding the cost of tickets, the same as 10 years ago.”

Manning also cited a number of ways Intrepid is leading the charge on this front, from supporting forestry protection in Tasmania, to aiding with wind farms in Turkey and reforestation in Kenya.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is in cinemas from this Thursday August 10 – and with a refund for your ticket, there’s no excuse not to see it.